


Mare Tranquillitatis

by Beckymonster



Category: Moon (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-17
Updated: 2010-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-13 17:31:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckymonster/pseuds/Beckymonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) a prominent feature of Lunar geography.  On the surface of the Moon, Sam Bell finds peace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mare Tranquillitatis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pipedreamer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipedreamer/gifts).



> Thanks to nancybrown for her sterling beta work.

Sam Bell was the most courageous man that Sam Bell had ever met.

He’d offered him the one thing that (he thought) he always wanted. To go home, to Earth. Instead he (what was the correct pronoun for referring to a clone anyway?) had given that chance to him.

He was also one of the most insightful as well. Not difficult as they were the same man.

“You called it right, you know,” Sam said as he helped ease Sam’s fever slick body into the EVA suit for the journey out to Matthew, the crashed Rover and Sam’s final resting place.

“Called what?” Sam slurred, his words ending with a wet cough.

“I’d never have been able to kill the new guy.” he replied, fiddling with the straps of the suit, not meeting Sam’s understanding gaze.

Sam chuffed a laugh. It wasn’t a humourous sound. “Won’t say I told you so!”

“Hey, it’s not like I’d begrudge you it,” Sam fished a smile from somewhere.

“Okay,” Sam replied as he patted himself down, going through the checks they both knew (or rather their originator had known) with the ease of long practice. “I told you so!”

“Aha!” Sam stated raising a finger as he eased himself into the other... spare... his suit. “You had your chance and you blew it!” he said, trying for levity.

The other Sam stopped still during his pat down, his dark eyes melancholy. “Got that right.” Before Sam could reply, he turned away to pick up his helmet.

“ELIZA arrival in one hour and thirty nine minutes” a helpful, feminine voice recited.

Sam nodded mutely before returning his attention to easing himself into his own suit. He wanted to say something but the moment had passed.

Besides, it wasn’t like he’d listen to himself anyway.

***

“GERTY?” Sam called out, mentally congratulating himself on keeping his voice steady. “Open the airlock please,”

GERTY glided towards the Sams, the ‘sadness’ emoticon clearly visible on its monitor.

“Sam, it has been a honour and a privilege working with you,” the computer stated in its usual calm way. An arm appendage glided over for Sam to shake.

“Can say the same for you GERTY” the other Sam said, voice cracking with emotion as he reached out to take the robotic appendage in his own hand.

Before he could take the proffered hand/claw, he crumpled before Sam’s eyes, blanching even whiter in pain.

If it hadn’t been for both Sam’s and GERTY’s quick reflexes, reaching out to hold him steady, the other Sam would have ended up falling flat on his face.

“Whoops!” Sam said, raising a small smile. “That was a fun trip while it lasted!” he said as he shrugged off GERTY’s arm. He let Sam’s hold remain for a few moments longer.

“Are you alright, Sam?” GERTY asked, the confused emoticon now in play.

“I’m good now,” Sam replied, stepping away from Sam, who let his hand fall limply to his side, “Anyway, gonna miss you,” he said softly, taking the proffered claw and shaking it with all the dignity anyone would accord another human being let alone a machine.

Which, as Sam reflected, was only proper.

***

“Are you scared?”

Sam heard the question as he eased himself down the ladder into the Rover. He paused on the last step before he answered.

“Course I am! I know the math and all but it don’t mean shit in actual practice, you know?” He lowered himself into the driving seat.

Sam was seated as far enough away as anyone could be without being outside the Rover. His head was leaning against the window, his eyes half closed. Helmet in his lap All told, he looked like death warmed over, which was hardly a surprise.

“I know,” was the quiet reply.

For a while, Sam thought that was the end of the conversation as he worked his way through preparing to take the Rover out onto the dark gunmetal desert of the Moon.

“I’m scared too,” Sam admitted so very quietly as he turned towards Sam. There were tears in his eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Sam reached out to take the other man into his arms to comfort him. And himself.

They hung onto each other for too long and not long enough. No sounds other than breath and soft sobs could be heard in the Rover’s cabin.

“At least I know what I’m headed towards,” Sam murmured into Sam’s shoulder. “I saw the videos of the other Sams getting into that capsule.” A wheezy breath. “Those poor schmucks never stood a chance.”

“Thank you,” Sam said, pulling back a little. The steering column was digging in, that was his excuse and he was going to stick with it.

“Hey,” Sam replied, a smile curling his lips at one edge, showing red coated teeth. “You would have done the same for me.”

Sam nodded, realising the truth in the words. “Yeah, I would have.”

“Do me a favour.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t be bullshitting me on the travelling thing.”

Sam raised a smile of his own as he leant back in his own seat. “Wouldn’t even dream of it. I was thinking about doing the whole Europe thing this time around. I mean, Amsterdam would be a lot of fun-”

He saw Sam grin at that. They hadn’t been exactly model teenagers. Or at least the memory implants said that they weren’t.

“But I’d like to go to places like London and Scotland and maybe go swim in the Med too...”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, that would be cool.” He glanced over at Sam. “Clock’s a tickin’ man, you ain’t got much time.”

“Neither of us have,” Sam replied quietly as he started the Rover’s engine.

***

Sam thought that Sam was out for the count as he placed him in the crashed Rover. He could hear the hiss and huff of Sam’s breathing but there were no other signs that the other guy was still with him.

It was only as he eased Sam into the drivers seat that he saw, in the brilliant starlight that poured through the fractured window, that Sam was still with him.

“Hey!” Sam said, planting himself on the seat in relief. “Glad that you weren’t going to go without saying goodbye!” He sounded cheerful to his own ears.

“Gotta have good final words,” Sam replied, voice barely picked up by his helmet’s mic. “Something to remember me by.”

Sam snorted. “It’s not like I can forget you!”

There was a flicker of a smile. “You’re a good man, Sam Bell.”

“Say hi...” Sam tried to swallow the lump in his throat. No mean feat as it felt the same size as the Bay of Rainbows. “Say hi to Tess for me,” he whispered.

Sam nodded as he closed his eyes.

As he walked back to his Rover, to take him back to Sarang Base, Sam swore he could hear, “All that and more,” over the comms.

Three Years Later

Sam Bell was dying. Not that he minded; it was his time.

He’d kept his promise to the Sam before him. He’d travelled all around the world. Saw amazing things; did everything he wanted to do. The good stuff? He did that twice.

Most of all, he made his own memories.

And yes, he got to meet Evie and the Original Sam Bell. It hadn’t been an auspcious beginning to their relationship. The trial and the resulting media attention would have been enough to scare anyone away.

Sam had tried to keep his distance - for Evie’s sake if nothing else. He hadn’t counted on her getting curious about her ‘other’ dad and getting in touch with him. To say their first meeting was weird was taking understatement to a whole new level.  
Somewhere along the line, something clicked and over time, Evie and her father gave him the best gift of all; their friendship and their love.

They were sat at his bedside when the time came, Original Sam folding silver paper into a unicorn and Evie holding Sam’s hand.

With a smile, Sam Bell, the sixth clone to bear that name, slipped into the arms of Death. Wherever the other Sams were, he was aching to meet them. He had so much to tell them.

fin


End file.
